I have to preface this blog post with this: The day I drove up the driveway to the homestead for the first time and looked out over the juniper forest, in an easterly direction, a feeling hit me. Call it a vibe. At the time I was just scoping properties to hopefully own my own piece of central oregon. That was 2009.
Fast forward six years and the place is mine. I feel as though the great energy and vibes have compounded as my family and I have put nothing but love, art and music into this place! Over the last 5 years I’ve been slowly building up the studio portion as it morphs into so many different things. My edit bay which is where most of my work happens, hasn’t changed, but around it keeps changing. From green screen studio, to jam room, to live tracking, to apartment, and comfy living. Most importantly a homey vibe!
Anyway, in the early summer of 2015 I received a text from a friend in the video/sound industry, he said someone was looking for a “dead” room. My edit bay has a very dead sound so I said “yeah” I got one of those! Thinking it was some kind of commercial VO thing or something. So on a whim they went for it. I really wasn’t sure who “they” were yet. They booked the place for 3 days and when Matt Hyde (producer ,engineer) showed up, I wasn’t sure who he was either. Big smile and super nice, the first thing out of his mouth was “I gotta be honest, I’m not sure what I’m walking into here” . So I said “well , let me show you” I took him right to my edit bay where I had a few c stands in the corner holding up some egg crate panels in a makeshift kinda booth…again I’m thinking VO for a commercial. Luckily Matt looked it over and thought he could totally make it work. He bgan to setup his “fancy smancy” mic and took over the couch in the living room as his control room. Such a simple setup! So I chatted with Matt some more and asked what the project was and he said “We’re recording vocals for the Deftones”. Wow, my heart dropped a little. (thats a household name). As it turns out the frontman for the Deftones, Chino Moreno, lives in Bend. He wasn’t really into going to LA and living in a hotel room for several weeks, while they recorded the vocals. Cant say that I blame him. Now that I have my little slice of heaven I never want to leave anymore!
The next day, Matt and Chino arrived, excited to get started! Chino was super humble and complimented the property, which we are always excited to talk abut. He seemed as though he’s managed to make it through 20 years of being a rockstar, without losing perspective on shit! That is a testament to him!
As they settled in, the family and I packed up and headed out camping for 3 days, to give them space and run of the land.
When we returned I popped in to see how things were going. They were excited like little kids! They had broken through a rut that they had found themselves in, in an earlier session in LA. They explored new melodies that hd taken them to new heights!! They both mentioned several times about the magical vibes of the place. The privacy to be able to hangout, outside, among thousand year old Juniper trees. To lay in a hammock and write lyrics, then go inside and voice them, was something a bit new to the typical LA, recording environment. After the 3 days Matt wanted to keep the vibes rolling and they spent another 7 recording all the albums vocals!
